Introduction

Whether you want to look extremely jacked with a 6 pack or have just a little more definition to
get a toned appearance for your tummy, a lot of the appearance of your abs comes down to how
much fat is on your body.

None of these exercises will specifically burn bodyfat on your stomach (It’s not possible to
determine where your body burns fat). What these exercises WILL do is provide a consistent
way to effectively train your abdominal muscles to get more definition within bodyfat % ranges
where abs are visible.

● If you want a ‘toned’ appearance, you will need to at least have a bf% of under 20%.
● If you want a ‘lean’ appearance with some ab definition, but not exactly a bulging 6-pack,
this usually is found at a 12-15% bodyfat range
● If you want to look ‘shredded’ with visible bulging abs, a V-taper, etc. you will need to
have a bodyfat% of at most 10-12%.

Getting to a low bodyfat% is mostly a result of your dieting choices. Yes, exercise helps but
controlling what you put into your body (and how much of it) is something that you must be fairly
strict about if you want to reach 10% bodyfat.

The abdominal muscles work to hold your body in place. Some exercises (Isometrics) do exactly
this, by holding your body in a position that requires the abs (such as a plank). Other exercises
use your abs to stabilize your legs through a movement.

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 The Workout
For best results, perform both one exercise for reps and an isometric exercise where you hold a
position. If you are using this as part of a larger workout program, it’s recommended that you do
ab exercises after any compound movements, towards the end of a workout. This is to help limit
the chance of injury in other exercises that need your abs to stabilize your body.

For all exercises (outside of isometrics like a plank) work up to 3 sets of 30-50 reps before
moving on. More difficult exercises will range towards the lower end of this, and you will feel
ready to move on by 3x30 if not before then.

Maintaining good form is absolutely crucial for all of this to work. Record yourself if you can, and
make sure you are keeping the parts of your body that are not moving in the correct position. If
you move other parts of your body, other muscles are being recruited and your abs are not
being used to stabilize your body in the way that makes these exercises most effective.

Within the Exercise List movements are ranked in order of least -> hardest difficulty. Start at the
bottom and work your way up once you hit 3x30+

For a visual listing:

1-3x30 Exercise

1xFail Isometric

As an example:

2 sets of Leg Raises, failing at 1x27 and 1x22

1 set of plank held for 112 seconds

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 Exercise List
All exercises within a category are listed in order of easiest -> hardest. Equipment exercises are
generally much more difficult and should be used as you advance in strength.

Compounds:
These are compound weightlifting exercises for other body parts that, when being trained
correctly, will benefit from or even slightly train the abdominal muscles. Ab strength can be a
limiting factor for all of these, so you may also see marginal benefits in these from isolating abs.

In order of most -> least requiring ab strength:

● Overhead Press (standing)

● Squat
● Bench Press
● Deadlift

For both Bench and Deadlift some core strength is required but it’s much less than OHP/Squat

Exercises:
Reverse Crunch
Lay on the ground with your knees bent, keeping your legs above your body. Try to keep your
legs in this position while you raise your legs towards your head. Your butt should come off the
ground slightly to reach the full range of motion. Control the motion of your legs back to the
starting position to complete the rep.

You may need to use your hands to keep your body stable through the motion. Pushing your
palms against the ground at your sides or above your head can be useful for this.

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Knee Raise
Lay flat on the ground and raise your legs with your knees at an angle, until your thighs are
perpendicular to the ground. Slowly drop your legs back to the ground, and repeat.

The more angled your knees are, the easier this exercise is. Reduce the angle over time until
you are at a Leg Raise with no angle.

Leg Raise
Lay on the ground (same way as in a Knee Raise and raise your legs until they are
perpendicular to the ground and at a 90 degree angle away from your body. Control the descent
of your legs falling back into the starting position for each rep.

Bicycle Crunch
Lay flat on the ground. Lift both your shoulders and feet off the ground. Put your hands behind
your head, and rotate to one side while tucking the opposite side knee up towards your chest.
Think about touching your elbow to your knee for this. Your upper body should rotate towards
the side with this motion - this is how the exercise hits your obliques (the ‘side abs’).

Once your knee is tucked and your elbow is reaching towards it with your upper body rotated to
that side, un-tuck your knee, uncurl, and do the same for the other side to complete the rep.

Isometrics:
Isometric exercises are lifts where you get stronger by holding your body in position for as long
as possible. Holding the position itself is difficult, instead of doing the exercise a certain number
of times.

Plank
Laying flat on the ground with your stomach, place your elbows against the ground. Brace your
toes against the ground, and then lift your body up so that you make a straight line from your
legs to your shoulders.

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Hold for time, and avoid letting your back arch or your hips tilt towards the ground. Once you
can do sets of 3+ minutes, you may want to consider moving on to a harder variation isolation
exercise

L sit
Place your hands against the ground or on a pair of Push Up Bars (more details in the
Equipment Section) with your legs flat against the ground. Push up, and hold your legs parallel
to the ground. Hold for time.

You may find that your quads limit your ability to keep your legs parallel to the ground and
continue the exercise. Do the best you can to keep them from falling to rest against the ground -
they will get stronger as well over time and it stops being a limitation.

V sit
Place your hands against the ground or on a pair of Push Up Bars (more details in the
Equipment Section) with your legs flat against the ground. Push up, and rotate your hips so that
your balance is above your hands, and raise your legs until your entire body forms a ‘V’ shape.
Hold this position for time.

Quads are again a huge limiting factor in this, and I would absolutely recommend getting
Gymnastic Rings (more details in the Equipment section) to work up in difficulty towards this.

Human Flag
This is more of a flex than an actual exercise. Seriously. The difficulty of this is absurd. Use it as
a reference of difficulty, because wtf bro?

How does anyone do this sh*t???

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Equipment Exercises:
Weighted Planks
By putting a weight on top of your back, you can add difficulty to a normal Plank. This may be
tricky without someone else to help place it evenly on your back if you are not very flexible, so it
is recommended to try increasing the difficulty by placing your elbows further forward first.

This same adjustment can also be made to weighted planks as well, and will make it much
more difficult as well!

Hanging Knee Raise

This is performed the same as a knee raise but instead of laying on the ground we are hanging
from a bar. Keep your body in a straight line and raise your legs with your knees at a 90 degree
angle, until your thighs reach a 90 degree angle away from your body. Control your legs and
slow your legs descent until you are back at the starting position.

Because hanging exercises are more difficult (gravity is working against you), you may want to
move on to Hanging Bent Leg Raises once you are able to do 20-30 reps for 3 sets

Hanging Bent Leg Raise

Keep your body in a straight line and raise your legs until your thighs reach a 90 degree angle
away from your body. Control the descent of your legs falling back into the starting position.

I recommend holding your knees at a 45 degree angle through the motion, but decreasing the
angle is another way to make things more difficult until you are able to do Hanging Leg Raise

Hanging Leg Raise

Keep your body in a straight line and raise your legs until they reach a 90 degree angle away
from your body. Control the descent of your legs falling back into the starting position. Your legs
should remain ‘locked’ and in a straight line throughout the movement.

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Once you have mastered the Hanging Leg Raise and are able to do sets of 30, there is one
more way to make it even more difficult. Instead of going to 90 degrees, instead continue the
motion and constrict your abs even further to try and get your ankles to be level with the bar you
are holding on to. This can require shifting your body, so be careful to keep reps controlled and
avoid using the momentum of your body to make the exercise ‘easier’.

Rollouts
This exercise requires an Ab Roller. To perform it, sit on your knees with the ab roller held by
both hands in front of you. Lean forward (placing your bodyweight onto the ab roller) and slide
the ab roller forward along the ground. The further your range of motion, the more you lean
away from your legs (placing more weight onto the upper half of your body - held by the ab
roller) and the further away from your center of mass the ab roller is.

The goal is to not let your body touch the ground, and then use your abdominal muscles to
constrict your body to bring yourself back to the starting position. While this can be a fairly easy
exercise, at the maximum range of motion your weight is held by the ab roller extended as far
as your arms reach above your head, with your body roughly parallel to the ground. Not easy!

Hanging L Sit
This isometric is a harder variation of the L-sit, but done while hanging from the bar instead of
while supporting yourself with your hands or a push up bar. This makes your abs work even
harder to counteract gravity, so holding this becomes even more difficult.

Hanging V sit
This isometric is a harder variation of the V-sit, making it one of the hardest possible isometric
we can do for our abs. This is performed by hanging from the bar and then raising your legs
towards the sky until your body is roughly shaped like a V. Hold for time, and see how long you
can go!

Weighted Crunches
This can be done with a high pulley cable machine at a gym. Sit on your knees, holding the
cable at head level. Flex your waist and contract your abs to lower your head towards your
knees. Control the movement both as you go down and return to the starting position to keep
the tension on your abdominal muscles.

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Because this is being done on a cable machine, you can increase/decrease the weight much
more easily than with other exercises. If done properly, this can be one of the best exercises for
your abs, and at higher levels of strength, one of the more intense exercises. The downside is
that you pretty much need access to a gym to perform this exercise, as few home gyms are
going to have a cable machine.

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 Equipment
There are a few pieces of equipment that you may want to consider getting as you continue to
progress with ab exercises. None of these are particularly expensive, but can make your life
easier or open up a few more options for exercises.

Gymnastic Rings
While not required, gymnastic rings open up a ton of potential for more exercises that you can
do and are super portable. If you want to work out wherever you go, gymnastic rings are your
friend. If you want to try some advanced core exercises, gymnastic rings are your best friend.
You can typically find gymnastic rings for $30-40 dollars, but sometimes the price will go as low
as $20.

Push Up Bars
While these are meant to help with hand placement and comfort while doing pushups, they are
great for L-sits and any harder variation like the V-sit. You can get a set at $5-10 USD and use
it to take strain off of your hands and onto your abs

Yoga Mat
Some of these exercises can leave you feeling sore if done on a rough surface. A yoga mat can
go as low as $10-20 USD and will be much more comfortable for you to do exercises on.
Completely optional, but useful on the go or if you also have an interest in Yoga.

Ab Roller
This is a very simple tool which enables what can be an extremely challenging core exercise.
Ab rollers are brutal the further you push out away from your body, letting your core completely
control your bodies weight. More details on Rollouts can be found in the Equipment Exercises
section. You can find an Ab Roller for $10 to $20 at a retail price.

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